One of the most annoying things a person can ever do is make a turn without putting on their blinker. It makes me want to scream to the top of my lungs and run them over. Yes, that is dramatic, but I don’t understand how someone could be so inconsiderate. 
As careless as that person may be, I need to know the dangers of giving that driver a piece of my mind.  
Road rage isn’t just flicking off another driver or yelling at them despite the fact they can’t hear a word you’re saying. It includes lane blocking, tailgating, gestures, horn use, headlight use, blocking traffic and countless
other things.
This past Monday afternoon, it was reported two cars in Maine were aimlessly driving and banging their cars into one another. Many of the motorists who witnessed the incident believed it to be a road rage incident.
One of the two vehicles ended up crashing into the ice-covered Crooked River that lies along Casco, Maine. Fortunately, all three people in the car were able to escape and swim to safety. When officials arrived, they were rushed to the hospital.
Officials have decided to handle this incident as a criminal matter.
According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, aggressive driving causes 66 percent of all traffic fatalities.
You don’t always have to worry about how a person will react while you’re in the car — sometimes it’s the exchange that follows.
A couple of weeks ago, a road rage incident led to the death of 44-year-old Tammy Meyers.
Allegedly, Meyers was driving back from teaching her daughter how to drive when she began exchanging words with 19-year-old Erich Nowsch. Meyers and her son later found and followed Nowsch’s car until a passenger opened fire.
It is believed that Nowsch followed her home, where Meyers’ son confronted the teenager. Both men were armed. Allegedly, when Meyers’ son saw Nowsch’s gun, he opened fired on him, and the teenager’s exchange of shots left Meyers dying in her driveway.  
The investigation is  still on-going. Sadly, this isn’t uncommon. According to the National Highway Safety Administration, more than 37 percent of aggressive driving incidents involve use of a firearm.  
Getting satisfaction out of cutting off other drivers and tailgating them in an attempt to express our anger is just insane. There is a chance that our reaction is far more dangerous than what the driver did to get us heated in the first place. 
We have to understand that our cars are not our bulletproof jackets. We’re not invincible because we locked ourselves in our steel automobiles.
In Walmart, most of us won’t go ramming our basket into the annoying person who’s been blocking the aisle for the last 5 minutes. As much as we may want to, we won’t. 
So rule of thumb: If you won’t do it in person, don’t do it behind the wheel. 
Fatal road rage incidents may not happen everyday, but they still happen.
Whenever I beep my horn at another driver out of frustration and my dad is riding passenger, I always get the “That’s going to end you up in a world of trouble if you keep doing that” lecture.
I try to explain to my father that I don’t want confrontation, I just need the other driver to understand that they are a terrible excuse for a driver and whoever issued them a license needs to be fired ASAP. 
But, with all of these new road rage incidents in the news, I’m beginning to realize that may not always be the best route to take.  
The next time you encounter another sophisticated, ignorant driver just take a deep breath, count to three, put on soothing music, relax and drive on.
Clarke Perkins is a 19-year-old political science freshman from New Orleans, Louisiana. You can reach her on Twitter @ClarkePerkins.